


Loved You to the Last

by Trinket



Series: I Would Find You in Any Lifetime [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23437843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trinket/pseuds/Trinket
Summary: Clark Kent loved Bruce Wayne. It was a Universal Truth. Except for as long as the Earth's Sun was Yellow, Clark could not die. But Bruce was never far from Clark's thoughts throughout the eons he lived until finally the sun turned Red.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent
Series: I Would Find You in Any Lifetime [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687414
Comments: 12
Kudos: 83





	1. Farewell Beloved

He could hear a beloved heartbeat growing weaker by the day, by the hour. Each minute, each _second_ that ticked by was a miracle in itself. And he was out rescuing a couple lost in the wilderness and putting out a wildfire. The cries for help _never_ stopped and as much as he'd liked to have helped everyone, he was getting more and more distracted.

Gazing down at the ashes of the forest, he sighed, at least he'd _stopped_ the wildfire in its tracks. There'd be people who'd replant and new life could grow.

 _Nothing_ was forever. Humans were so _fragile_. Their lifespans so _short._ If he'd been on Krypton his own life would have been cut short due to the red sun.

Shaking his head he turned and flew home. Not Smallville, the people he'd loved there had been lost to him years ago. Not to Metropolis, Lex Luthor had never found a way to stop the aging process and his only heir had never accepted the Luthor name. A child created with the combination of his DNA and Superman's own.

Just because Kon-El had Kryptonian DNA, didn't mean he aged as slowly as Kal-El. But, he didn't age as swift as a human either. That was only a small relief.

With shaking fingers he landed in the woods just outside Wayne Manor. Changed his clothes and hopped on a motorcycle. Once at the gates he pressed a button on his keychain and smiled grimly as he rode in, the gates closing behind him.

Hopping off, he ran to the door, which he unlocked. He hurried inside, slammed the door behind him shut.

"Bruce!?" He called out, his voice shaken as he strained to hear that fragile, precious heartbeat.

"I'm in here, Clark," a gruff voice, edged with age called from the living room.

His own heart pounding hard against his chest. His shoulders relaxed only marginally with relief.

Clark turned and walked into the living room and spotting Bruce on the daybed wearing nothing but a robe he blinked. "What are you doing, Bruce?"

"My body may be feeble, Clark, but my mind is still sharp."

He nodded. Bruce Wayne - Batman - whatever he preferred to call himself had defied the odds. He wasn't plagued by dementia, but the rest of his body, his other organs, they'd suffered from his days of a vigilante.

Trying not to let his fear show, or the tears flow, he sat down beside Bruce.

Bruce turned and arched a brow. "Why are you home so early, Clark?"

"I... I couldn't concentrate."

Bruce lifted a hand and brushed his fingers through Clark's hair. "You were worried about me."

"Always, Bruce. And don't try to talk me out of it. I can't _help_ it."

"I... realize that. I felt the same anxiety when Alfred..."

Clark leaned into Bruce, wrapped his arms around him. Refrained from hugging him too tightly. He was more fragile than he'd once been and even then Clark, unless they were playing underneath a red light with red sun radiation, had to be careful.

"I miss him too. I miss _all_ of them." Only Diana remained, but she'd also gone back to Themyscira. A place where she didn't age and only came back whenever she was truly needed.

"I know, Clark."

"I love you, Bruce," he buried his face in the crook of Bruce's neck. A couple of tears escaped to soak against the aged man's neck.

Bruce moved his hand from Clark's hair and brushed it down his back. "And I, you. To the last."

"To the last," he said on a broken sob as he lifted his head so that he could stare into steely ice blue eyes.

They stared like that for a long while. Clark knew his beloved was too old to take on either role, but their relationship had never been pure sex. It wasn't something either _needed_ , but it had been one way to express their connection. Now, they were just content to hold each other in loving repose.

"I don't know how I'll cope when... when..."

"Shh, Clark. We both knew this couldn't be forever."

He let out a bitter laugh. "You thought it would end in a year, or less!"

"And you proved me wrong. But Clark, don't let my death _ruin_ you. Someday, you'll love again."

"No." He couldn't _imagine_ loving again. Didn't want to. His connection with Bruce was _soul deep_. "You're my _soulmate_. How could I ever love anyone else?"

Bruce's brows arched. "Just because I'm gone doesn't mean you have to stop living Clark. Take a year or two to grieve, sure, but don't let what you feel for me now keep you from happiness."

"You make me happy, B."

"And you brought the light into my life. Helped me to reconnect with my children, so I could be in my grandchildren's lives."

He nodded. He had.

"And, you gave me a child."

"We lost him," he gulped. The pain like fire in his heart. And he knew they could have tried again, with the Kryptonian technology that had given them their first. But he'd been afraid.

Bruce's hand moved from his back to his chin. Gripped him there. A firm grip, but so much weaker than once it'd been.

Clark's eyes fluttered closed as those lips, soft and tasting of peppermint tea brushed over his lips.

"You can always try again, Clark. With someone new."

"No. I don't want to have a child with anyone else."

"Any child you created using my DNA, would never know me. But I don't mind. I love you too much, Clark."

Their foreheads pressed together, blue eyes locked with blue.

"I wish you could stay with me. _Always_. Bruce."

"Someday, when the sun goes out, or is no longer yellow, you and I will be together again. Until then, live life to the fullest."

"That's too long," he grumbled.

Bruce chuckled. "Just don't become a dictator."

"I don't know if I can do this without you."

"You can either continue our mission with the help of the current Batman and Robin, or you can find an uninhabited planet and finally start New Krypton."

He gulped. "My place is here."

"You've given the world enough, Clark. An entire human lifetime. Even your Ma and Pa would have agreed."

"I know," he whispered feebly and lowered himself to his knees on the floor before the daybed. Pressed his ear against Bruce's chest and listened to the beating of his heart.

Bruce reached for his hands. Fingers entwined between each other's. He felt the ring on the aged man's left ring finger. A ring that matched his own on the same hand and same finger. And hated the words _until death do we part_.

"I will _always_ love you, Bruce."

"Then keep me in your heart, always, Clark, but allow yourself to love someone else too."

He remained quiet at that. But closed his eyes as he listened to Bruce's heart beat slowing, his breathing becoming shallow.

"It's time, Clark."

"No." He sobbed.

"We both knew this time would come. I regret nothing, Clark."

He tilted his head to stare into the depths of Bruce's eyes. Saw the moisture there and knew that as much as Bruce was resigned to the inevitable, he too felt heartbreak in having to leave him.

When Bruce closed his eyes and laid down on the daybed, Clark laid beside him.

As late afternoon passed into evening, and evening passed into night, he felt those once strong hands grow lax. Felt the warm body grow cold once the heart no longer beat.

He couldn't move, his body shaking as never before. His anguish worse than anything he'd ever felt before. Worse than when he'd lost either of his parents. There was only one pain just as bad, if not worse than this, but at least then he'd had his husband to share part of the burden of loss with him then. When they'd lost their son, having had him less than seven years.

In the glow of morning, that was how Damien and Jon found them. Bruce with his light blown out forever and Clark curled up around the cold, stiff body.

"Dad, you need to let go of him."

"Jon is right, Clark, take your hands off of my Father. You can't follow him this time."

He shook his head. He didn't want to let go. But gazing at the lifeless body held in his embrace, he knew, Bruce couldn't feel him. Not anymore. His soul had left his body sometime during the night.

Unwrapping himself from around his husband, he stood up on shaky limbs. Managed only to walk over to his recliner, across from an empty one.

He gazed at the boys, but they hadn't been boys in a very long time. They had grown children of their own. But in their eyes he saw the tears.

It wasn't only him affected by the loss of Bruce, the first Batman of Gotham. Spreading his arms he waited.

Jon was the first to run to him and sink into his embrace. Damien followed, but instead of letting Clark hug him, Damien wrapped his arms around the pair of them.

"He told me to find love again, someday," he shook his head.

Jon gasped.

Damien grunted. "Father had his reasons. Is that all he said?"

"No. I know he left part of his will on a DVD. He said I could try again, to have a child, even using his DNA."

Jon and Damein glanced at each other.

"Father, would have loved any child you could provide him, Clark."

It had been a long time since the boy had stopped calling him alien, or other names.

"I don't know... It... it wouldn't feel right... without him."

Jon ruffled his dad's hair. "The Batfam and Superfam will be there for you."

"Father left many documents and recordings. Even if the sprog never knows him physically, it should be enough. If you decide to go that route."

Clark tilted his chin down. He was tempted, but still afraid, and more so now than ever before since the loss of the first child that the Birthing Matrix had helped to produce for them. He'd have to stay on Earth to raise his child. Yet a child between himself and Bruce, if they had descendants, then at least he wouldn't feel quite so alone.

Of course, Damien and Jon, they made him feel as if he weren't alone.

"Where's Kon-El?"

"Saving some people up in Alaska." Jon grinned, "I should probably go help him so he can get back here sooner." Though the grin was gone once he looked back to the body.

Damien sighed and picked up his cell. "I'm calling an ambulance. I heard it's protocol."

"He'll want to be buried beside his parents." And as much as he wanted to be buried beside the Kent's himself, when the time came, if it ever came, he wanted to be buried in the same place as his one true soulmate.

He gulped as he imagined the months, years, decades, centuries, _millennia_ before him. Cold and barren without Bruce's touch. Where all he had were memories to cling to.

"It's a good thing Father thought to hide the Kryptonite."

Clark blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, Dad. You look pale. Let's get some sunlight and then... we all have to plan for the funeral."

He nodded, even though he felt like a dead weight was pushing him down.

"Tell the world, Superman is taking a _long_ vacation."

"I'm certain Father would approve."

"If anything serious happens though, I'll... take a vacation from my vacation."

They all laughed, if only for a second. Their humor didn't last long. How could it, when one of the people who'd been in their lives the longest and who'd been so influential, was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I believe I cried when I was writing this piece. It's another story I was intending to keep back until winter. But I don't know what the future holds, especially lately, so I've decided to release it early. Hope you enjoy it despite the type of content.
> 
> This song make's me think of this story, or at least this chapter. It's called 'My Love will Never Die' by Claire Wyndham https://youtu.be/1SvBXEqgu6k


	2. Dear Descendant

Clark sat on the edge of a cliff looking down over the land. Humans had evolved time and time again. And he sat with one of his descendants. Overtime his DNA had spread throughout the population.

He'd had six different offspring via the Birthing Matrix with Bruce's frozen DNA involved. Every so many eons.

He sat next to his youngest, of only thirty Earth years. Not that the years were the same as before. His third son with Bruce. He'd already lost their three daughters and second son a long time ago. But their blood coursed through many humans. Their Kryptonian blood was but a drop in the bucket.

"Look, the sun has turned red, Bry-El."

"So I see, Father. You'll grow old like the rest of us."

He nodded. "Yes. One day I will die." Perhaps before the Earth went too. A place that had become a paradise like Diana had described her own home of Thymscira. All because humans had learned and had evolved.

"You do not sound disturbed."

"No, son. I believe in a life after death."

"You believe you'll be reunited with your soulmate. The only one, you were ever willing to have children with."

"Well, there was a brief time before him..."

"The ancient Jon-El."

"Yeah," he smiled fondly. The ache from that loss was long gone, save for a tiny ping now and then. "Had him with Lois Lane. But she wasn't my soulmate."

"You did love her."

"At the time, yes. I still love her, but that love was never as deep as with..."

"Bruce Wayne, my other Father."

"Yes."

"I wish I had truly known him, in all his personas."

"Well, the current Batman is similar, if not quite as jaded."

"It must run in the family, despite how many generations back."

"Mhmn. Alfred would be so proud."

"I wish I had known that man as well."

"Maybe in the afterlife, Bry-El." He stood up and dusted off his tights. His powers were starting to wane. Soon they'd be gone forevermore. And while he could go find another planet with a yellow sun, Earth had long been his home. And he was tired. So tired. And he still missed Bruce.

"Let's go home, Father. Batman of this era awaits."

"I take it he knows."

"Yes. He is as great a detective as his ancestor."

"In a moment." He stared up at the sky as the stars came out and the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.

"It won't be too much longer now, Bruce." He hoped and he prayed that they'd find each other again despite how long between their own ends. And if he weren't waiting on the other-side, perhaps there was something to be said for reincarnation.

He turned around and floated toward Bry-El. With the latest technology his son didn't need to rely on his Kryptonian powers as much as he always had.

"By the way Father, I am soon to have a child of my own."

He blinked. "With who?"

"The current Batman's sister."

Bruce was the current era's ancestor, but so many generations back that Bry-El and they weren't _really_ related.

"I'm surprised _he_ approved."

"He was skeptical at first, but once he found out who my other father happens to be, he and she were quite _ecstatic_. To have so close a relative alive to their most influential ancestor. They always wondered why I looked so much like Bruce Wayne, the First Batman. Of course, now they know you named me Bruce Wayne Jr."

"Bry-El... sometimes you sound like Spock."

"Who?"

"Nevermind." He chuckled. He was sure he'd figure it out. "Come on, I'll treat you to a chilidog." Just because the humans no longer knew what one of those was didn't mean he couldn't make them himself.

"Why _did_ you name me as you did? What about your first son with your husband?"

Bruce was the only man he'd ever been with. The only one he'd allowed to touch him like _that_. Not that they didn't switch around their roles and often during their marriage. What was the fun in not experimenting? But anyone else he'd been with, no matter how brief, had always been a woman.

"Our first son... died, shortly before he was to turn seven. The Joker and Lex Luthor... had Kryptonite bullets. His name was Thomas, or Thom-El. He'd just started to fly and didn't know. He was between us and them when Luthor pulled the trigger. It would have hit me in the shoulder, but it got him in the heart."

"I am sorry that happened."

"I was too afraid of something like that happening again. I think Bruce was too. Only after he had passed on did I use the Birthing Matrix again. The first two times it gave us a daughter. The third time a son, but I named him Jor-El II. My daughters were Martha, or Mara-El, named for my mother and Bruce's, and Lois, or Lane-El. A third daughter, she was named Barbara, or Aria-El. As I believed you would be the last, I named you Bruce for your human side, and Bry-El for your Kryptonian side. If I were ever to have another son, I imagine I'd name him after Alfred."

"If I am to be the last, then Alfred shall be my own son's name. Alfred the human, and Aed-El for the Kryptonian in him."

"I hope your future wife is fine with that idea."

"I am certain she will be. She wishes to have a baker's dozen, so I should at least be able to name one or three."

"I wish you luck, my son."

"And I wish you happiness, Father."

They entered Clark's home; one he'd built out of a cave and several trees. Not tree's he'd taken down, but that he'd built part of his home inside of, around, or on top of in the branches. All of it, connected to the upper cave entrance.

"When I'm gone, you and your descendants may have this."

"I am honored, Father, and accept your generous gift. I only hope it will be many years yet before you leave us."

He chuckled. "I should live long enough to bounce some grandchildren on my knee."

"Good. Now, what about those chilly dogs?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading still!
> 
> Can you imagine how Clark (Kal-El) must be feeling? Think of how *long* he's been around. It's difficult to imagine anyone going that long without falling in love again... but there are those... who love someone and it's unrequited, or those who die of a broken heart - especially when you see how few months went between a pair of spouses (although sometimes it could be a coincidence, but it happens...) I'm going to start crying again if I think about it too much.


	3. Only the Beginning

Three quarters of a century passed. His limbs grew weak, his knees ached, his back hunched, his hair grayed. He was only thankful his hair hadn't fallen out.

Around him, his grandchildren and their children stood around him. Bry-El had died a decade before him and his wife a decade before that.

Even the latest Batman stood there. Surprisingly _not_ the son of the previous Batman, but his eldest great grandchild. Only twenty-three and new to the task. But he'd been Robin before. Chosen as a protégé. Still related to his lost soulmate.

He could see tears welling in their eyes, even in the most stoic of them all.

"Be at peace, my children. At long last I can truly rest. I am blessed. So do not weep for me, for I am never truly gone, as long as you keep me in your hearts." As they had kept Bruce Wayne, the First Batman in their minds, if not their hearts. But they'd read the files and seen the tapes that Clark had made sure to fix up through all of the years.

"Poppa, I don't want you to go!" A little girl with curly hair and steely ice blue eyes jumped onto the bed with him, teddy bear in her arms.

He reached up and with his thumbs and wiped away her tears. "We all have to go. _Someday_. And I've lived longer than most." Probably longer than _anyone_. "My soulmate is waiting for me."

"Why can't he come here?"

He chuckled and brushed his fingers through her curls. "It doesn't work that way."

She pouted and sniffled. "Oh..."

Her father, who looked so much like Bruce, was the grandson of Bry-El, "Come on Lara-El." Another name from his past. A woman he'd never known, not even her image a part of his memory.

He smiled and closed his eyes. "Leave me, please." Unlike Bruce, he wanted _no one_ there to watch him leave the world. Only Bruce, had he been alive. But he'd been only human and Clark had suffered without him for so long.

As he took his final breath, he thought he heard the beep of a flatline. Maybe it was his own?

A flash of light illuminated the room and he opened his eyes. Except, he stared down at his aged body. Turned his head and saw a black gloved hand emerge from bright light.

"It's time, my love."

"Bruce..." he whispered, and reached his hand out to place it in the gloved hand of the one person his soul cried and rejoiced for.

Then he was engulfed in strong arms. One's that hadn't held him in so long and he, he _wept_.

Bruce brushed kisses across his brow as he _flew_ them to their destination.

"I waited at the gates for you, Clark."

"Bruce, why?"

"I could not walk toward a new adventure. Not without you."

"You really did... _do_ love me."

"I loved you till my last breath. Love doesn't die just because the body does."

"I loved you to the last, too. I couldn't... couldn't be with someone else. Not like I was with you."

"I know. I saw. I knew your pain and it pained me not to be able to do anything about it. Our children are waiting for us on the other side of the gate."

"They are?"

He nodded. "I got to know them as I couldn't in life."

"This isn't the end of our story, is it?"

"It's only the beginning."

If there were any such thing as reincarnation, Clark hoped it didn't happen for a very long time as Bruce placed a hand around his waist and they walked together into the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you. Once again. For reading. I hope you enjoyed the story, at least for what it was.  
> And yes, I couldn't make them sad forever... or just leave it with Bruce's death. 
> 
> I thought about a sequel... and I'm like... what would I even do with that? Because who would they be? What would they be? And then I was like... what if they were both born on Krypton in another Universe that's timeline doesn't follow the linear path of a lot of the other ones... and maybe Krypton doesn't go BOOM. I have too many ideas for stories and then I complete a story and I'm like... WELL maybe a sequel... and then I have to yell at myself that I got too many eggs cooking in the pot... I think I misquoted that...

**Author's Note:**

> Please join as at the [Batsupes Community Discord Server](https://discord.com/invite/3fBFAc8)


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